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I'm likely in the minority on this post but I think Reynolds has a chance to salvage his season and turn in a line closer to his track record. I'm not necessarily a big fan of Mark Reynolds but what I am a fan of is examining established major league player's track records over the course of their career rather than down months or in Reynolds' case, a down year. Insert jokes about Reynolds not being an established major league ball player here.

Even though I'm more coming at this from a devil's advocate angle I thought it would be fun to consider what Mark Reynolds' line would look like IF he got hot for the remainder of the season. The fact is that over the last 4 years he's never hit less than 28 home runs and while I don't think there's anyway he does that this year he's streaky enough to end up with 20 plus bombs at the end of September.

He's so streaky and has such above average power that it wouldn't take long to bring his numbers up. His average is only 10 points lower than where it ended last year and although he won't hit 37 home runs this year I could see him going on a hot streak and bashing another 12 over the next two months.

August typically is Reynolds' best month of his career in several key statistical categories.

BABIP is .338 - higher than any other monthSlugging % is .520 - higher than any other monthHR total is 35 - also higher than any other month

If he has a strong August he could be the free agent bat we needed to trade for to make a serious run at a playoff spot. Again, I'm still not a huge Reynolds fan, don't get me wrong, but he's simply not as bad as he has looked this year and his track record shows that. Just saying.

ofahn wrote:You are ABSOLUTELY right about that; however, I see him as capable of being a "black hole" in the lineup that could cost us just enough games that we don't make the playoffs.

EXACTLY. When he's off he is a BLACK HOLE. Runner on 3rd with one out and a slumping Reynolds steps up, you know that run is not coming home. Hopefully he does get on a roll for the rest of the season but there is always the risk that he will be a black hole for extended stretches which would be devastating for this already streaky lineup.

ofahn wrote:I would rest a lot easier if I knew this wasn't a temporary blip.

Maybe, but he's got 3 straight games he made a big impact in. Sunday he scored the go ahead run in the 10th, Monday he went 3-3 with 2 doubles, the first RBI of the game, and a run scored, and last night he started the rally in the 7th inning with a leadoff double. Not to mention all the great defensive plays he has been making.

Matt P wrote:Maybe, but he's got 3 straight games he made a big impact in. Sunday he scored the go ahead run in the 10th, Monday he went 3-3 with 2 doubles, the first RBI of the game, and a run scored, and last night he started the rally in the 7th inning with a leadoff double. Not to mention all the great defensive plays he has been making.

Just a coincidence but this was the post I was reading as Mark Reynolds just drove that ball over the right center field wall. Im really starting to feel like these boys might make September fun. If Reynolds can bring the power back for 6 weeks it really would feel like we made a trade for a bat

DougDE wrote:Just a coincidence but this was the post I was reading as Mark Reynolds just drove that ball over the right center field wall. Im really starting to feel like these boys might make September fun. If Reynolds can bring the power back for 6 weeks it really would feel like we made a trade for a bat

Reynolds, Wieters, and Hardy have all looked much better at the plate recently. If 2 of them can continue this offense can be dangerous, if all 3 can the Yankees better take notice.